Dr Nicola Foster PhD

Biography

Nicola joined Solent University in August 2017 to develop the PhD programme in visual arts, including practice-based research. Coming from an academic background in art practice (Goldsmiths College), continental philosophy and art history (Essex University), Nicola became actively involved in the debate that led to the establishment of 'practice-based' research in the UK. This led to her early engagement with practice-based supervision and examination of PhD research projects. She taught visual arts and supervised research students at the University of the Arts London, Cardiff University, Arts University Bournemouth, Arts University Norwich, the Open University and the University of Suffolk.

Nicola was a member of the AHRC College Peer Review (2007-2016) and was invited to sit on Panel B meetings, specialising in practice-based research. She served as a trustee of the Association for Art History (2011-2017). She was also a member of the Editorial Board of Women's Philosophy Review (1998-2004) and the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Artistic Research (2011-2016).

Nicola currently supervises PhD students in the following topics:

'Disobedient Daughters: Anna Aitkins cyanotypes'

'The State Corporate Military Complex: It's Representation, Visualisation and Constitutive Subjectivation' – the politics and ethics of war photography and representations of violence

'Contemporary art practices in/with/at Natural History Museums'

'Changing perceptions of east Asian art: the history of curatorial practices in private and public museums'

Activist Art

Walking with Benjamin and Freud in Japan

Irish input in the construction of Japanese culture

Visualising illness

Art and the internet

Previous theses included:

'The Home I carry with me: Mapping the Home through drawing practices'

Nicola welcomes enquiries from prospective students in visual arts (practice-based, practice-led, text based or other approaches to visual art and culture), art institutions, the art market, exhibitions and curatorial practices.

Research interests

Nicola's research interests focus on gender and ethnicity in art history, mostly in the modern and contemporary period.

Nicola is currently working on a book Drawing Across Cultures, contemporary art in East and South East Asia in the context of debates on the temporality of the contemporary, history, identity, cultural difference, cultural exchanges and issues of globalisation. She takes the above to be part of a wider set of issues which are social and political, hence her research area includes art institutions, exhibitions, exhibitions' history and curatorial practices as well as the art market and the role of collectors.

Further information

Recent publications

Follow the link to find out more about Nicola's published works in books and chapters and refereed articles and reviews.

‘Anthropology, Mythology and Art: Reading Beuys Through Heidegger’ in Beuysian Legacies in Ireland and Beyond: Art, Culture and Politics, ed. Lerm-Hayes LIT Verlag as part of the European Studies in Culture and Policy series, 2011

‘Aesthetic Hybridity and the Dominance of the Visual’ in Art, History and the Senses P. di Bello and G. Koureas (eds.) 2010, Ashgate

‘Boundaries of Sight and Touch: Memoirs of the Blind and the Caressed’ (Re-Reading Drawing(s): Derrida, Irigaray and Nancy Spero), Published in (CD format) Drawing Across Boundaries, ed. Judith Mottram, LUSAD, 2000. Now also in Tracey Issue 1, 1999, online.

'Gender and Patronage: 3 Women Collectors of Contemporary Chinese Art'. With Sylvia Schlegel. University of Loughborough, 6 April 2017.

'The Promise of Art for an Urban Future'. Imagining the Future: Community Innovation and Social Resilience in Asia. The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 20-23 February 2017.

'China Dream meeting another Dream: the case of Uli Sigg'. University of Stockholm, Exploring the China Dream.15-16 August 2016.

'The case of Uli Sigg: Collector, Agent, Advisor and Promoter of Contemporary Chinese Art'. Warburg Institute, University of London, Collecting and Display: The Art market, Collectors and Agents: Then and Now 13 July 2016.

'Two Exhibitions: The Shanghai Biennial and Guangzhou Triennial. University of Edinburgh' (AAH annual conference). Co-Convenor of the AAH Session: The City in the Biennial. 7-9 April 2016.

'Thailand and China at the Venice Biennale'. London, Senate House, The Venice Biennale and the Art Market 3-5 February 2016.

'Towards The Construction of an Alternative 'Chineseness' in the work of Yueni Lo' – Indirect Speech, 'Chineseness' in Contemporary Art Discourse and Practice, Art Market, Curatorial Practices and Creative Process, Lisbon 16-19 March 2015.

'Heidegger's Late Work as Conceptual writing' – Annual conference of the American College of Art conference, Chicago 13 Feb 2014.

'The Rhythm of East West Dialogues in the work of three Thai Contemporary Artists' – Annual Conference AAH Reading 2013.

Conference paper: (with Pat Hurrell) Ipswich the Art School in the 1960's 'transnational Flows in European Fine Art Education 1900-2000' AAH University of Reading 2013.

Conference paper: 'Photography: the Materiality of the Event of Art?' to be presented at the Association of Art Historians Annual conference at the Glasgow School of Art (April 2010).

Conference paper: ‘Photography in the process of globalisation: a new form of (post-) colonialisation or the practice through which difference can emerge? Dublin School of Art and Design 27-29 June 2007.

Conference co-organiser and Chair of Round Table: Goldsmiths College, London and the Society for Women in Philosophy: Philosophy, Feminism, Art and Society, Nov 2006.

Respondent and Chair of the Round Table: Photography Postgraduate Research Conference, University of Wales, Newport July 2006.

Conference paper ‘Aesthetic Hybridity and the Dominance of the Visual’, Annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians, University of Leeds, 5-7 April 2005.

Conference paper: ‘The Use of Philosophy in Art and the use of art in philosophy’ in Uncertainty in Philosophy: The Learning Experience and Research, Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, 29 October 2005.

Conference paper: ‘The Ethics of Performance: Yoko Ono and Marina Abramovic’ in East 05: Ethics into Aesthetics, August/October 2005, Norwich School of Art and Design.

Conference paper: ‘Rethinking Aesthetics: performance and the Object’ Relics of Performance, University of Ulster, Belfast, April 2005.

Conference paper: ‘The Philosopher and the Poet/Artist: The Resistance of Embodiment and Art in Heidegger’s Ontology’, Society for European Philosophy, 7th Annual Conference, August 26th – 28th, University of Greenwich.

Conference paper: ‘Philosophy and the Work of Art: Aesthetics, History and Gender’, Discovering Aesthetics, July 2004, University College Cork, Ireland.

Conference paper: ‘Art, Truth and Gender in Heidegger’s Late works’, Aesthetics and Politics, University of Essex, September 2003, Society for European Philosophy.

Conference paper: ‘Towards an Aesthetics of Difference’ (invited symposia paper) Writing Aesthetics, University of Leeds, May 2003, International Association of Philosophy and Literature.